[...] The accident is probably due to “a few violent chemical reaction,” said Francis Sorin Europe 1 of the French Nuclear Energy Society. “It can also be an explosion due to the criticality, that is to say that at one point, there is a nuclear reaction, a chain reaction that begins but can not last. It is very but low enough to make an explosion, “he said.

“This is the first time it happens to us in 15 years,” said one of Europe ‘s head of occupational medicine. “Do not panic. We keep them informed but for now, we were just asked to lock themselves in the building and not to leave.”

An investigation will be opened in order to determine the exact cause of the accident. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA has asked France for information about the explosion. The crisis center of the UN agency was “immediately activated.”

But if it were a criticality explosion . . . that would mean fission occurred–and that would mean fission products were created (and presumably released). Wouldn’t it?

I’m not a scientist, but having heard about criticality explosions for the past six months, that is my understanding of what criticality means and what follows from it.

If it was a criticality explosion, I bet they will eventually have to admit that radioactive stuff was released, but they will assure us that it was in minuscule, trace amounts–barely about background levels–and there was never any threat to human health (aside from the people who were injured and/or killed by the blast itself).

By the way, it’s annoying the way nuke-industry people talk of “treating” the radioactive waste, when what they really mean is burning it. “Treatment” makes one think of the stuff people spray on carpets to help them resist stains–it doesn’t call to mind images of radioactive smoke and ash going up a chimney and (at least some of it) out into the atmosphere.

The person killed was a foundry worker who was near the furnace when it exploded. The prognosis for the seriously injured worker, evacuated to a hospital in nearby Montpellier, was not immediately known.
Acton said the biggest concern in the coming hours will be to monitor whether any radiation is released. That will depend in large part on where exactly the furnace is on the site and how well contained it is.

So it seems like there are two different accounts. The article linked here says they were melting down radioactive metal in a foundry. I believe one of the earlier reports said they were incinerating “low-level” contaminated waste in a furnace (presumably, contaminated gloves/clothing, etc.).

YEs–The BBC story said “The EDF spokesman said blast happened in a furnace used to burn waste, including fuels, tools and clothing which had been used in nuclear energy production but had only very low levels of radiation.”

critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (e.g. the nuclear fission cross-section), its density, its shape, its enrichment, its purity, its temperature and its surroundings.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass

Waste capable of a sustained fission to the point of criticality is not “low” in radioactivity. The lies and minimization continue in as unabated a fashion as the criticalities they don’t want to admit to….

abc tv news in the usa just reported on this France action tonight… and actually stated that “fukushima is still spewing radiation” during a quick segment on rising nuclear drama- I was pleasantly shocked.
Diane Sawyer, she’s the cat’s pajamas!

She’s quite the Cougar.
“One Hell of a Woman” as Mac Davis sang.
Unfortunately her position requires her to perform
the distasteful duty of Fawning and glorifying
freekin’ RUMSFELD. Did you see that terrible show?
Old Devil Donny, breaking down and crying over his
own family problems, and Diane comforting this Demon,
there, there, it’s all right…
yucky!

Not to change the subject of “Cougars”, Woof! Woof!
But here is a good article on the Marcoule site.
Ya just gotta wonder what they were melting down and where it came from. Is the Fuku Devil spreading by human hands?

From the last paragraph of this article…

French officials: ‘Don’t worry about fatal nuclear explosion’
By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco
12th September 2011 17:48 GMT

……

The sprawling Marcoule facility is used for “the cleanup and disassembly of nuclear installations which have reached the end of their life cycle,” according to AREVA, the contractor managing the waste disposal along with providing other nuclear-industry services such as the production of tritium and the maintenance of nuclear-material transport containers.

Apparently, burning what they call “low-level” nuclear waste IS legal. To the best of my limited knowledge, it’s not stuff like spent fuel rods. It’s things like gloves and clothing used by nuke workers that have become contaminated. I know I posted this before, but there was an article this summer that a bunch of this supposedly low-level waste was sent from Germany to the US in order to be incinerated–oh, we’re supposed to say “treated”–at a facility in Tennessee this summer.

if the explosion happened in a foundry area, it almost certainly involved plutonium. plutonium will catch fire and burn uncontrollably when heated to i think around 450deg farenheight. the only way to keep this from happening when melting the metal down is to do so in an atmosphere of freon.

what i think may have happened is plutonium dust had accumulated to a degree where once a mass of it was brought into the furnace it reacted with other amounts of plutonium in the area creating a criticality. this blast of heat and energy may have sparked off a larger explosion.

one thing i have learned since the fuku accident began is if the governemnt or a company in the nuke industry says “there was no radiation released” it means there was definately radiation released. if they say ” a small amount of radiation was released” it means a large amount of radiation was released. if they say “theres nothing to worry about there is no health concerns” it means that there is a reason to worry and there will be major health concerns.
if they say one thing, then exactly the opposite of what they have said is probably closer to the actual truth.

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